Day 9: Driving to New Orleans

Yesterday was a quiet day. We wanted to meet Sharon and Joe, Jackie's aunt and uncle, who live near Houston, but they had other things scheduled, so we drove on past Houston to Beaumont, TX and did not stop anywhere.

Today we drove from Beaumont to our hotel in New Orleans, and we took some backroads that went close to the Gulf of Mexico rather than taking Interstate 10, driving through some low-lying and sparsely-populated bayou lands with houses and businesses on stilts, raised up so storm waters can flow underneath. Mostly it is flat and green as far as you can see, barely above sea level.

At one canal we crossed, they had a car ferry instead of a bridge, a complete surprise until we were almost upon it. It turned out that we were lucky with the timing, so we waited only ten minutes or so, and the ride across was probably less than five minutes. While we were waiting to go across, we noticed maybe half a dozen dolphins in the canal, coming up for air and then diving back down over and over.

First in line. The other side is in the distance.

There were big white birds along the gulf, which the Internet says are white herons or snowy egrets - not sure if those are the same thing. Whatever they are, in one area they were perched in numbers in every tree and around bodies of water, looking like a National Geographic picture. My pictures of them look blurry, but Jackie took some pictures with her good camera, so maybe I will post one of those someday.

Now we are in New Orleans, taking an evening break and avoiding the 99-degree heat before we head out to look for dinner. Our hotel is close to Bourbon Street and Jackson Square, and we are staying two nights in one place for the first time, so tonight and tomorrow we will see the sights, taste the food, and maybe listen to some music.